Water in Australia - How Healthy are our Rivers and Estuaries?

Rivers around the world are in crisis. As one of the most sensitive indicators of land use and catchment condition they are the warning 'canaries' of environment degradation resulting from human pressure and misuse. In Australia, the driest vegetated continent, many rivers are now in very poor condition. 

Estuaries are widely recognised as the planet's most valuable ecosystems. With approximately 36,700 km of coastline, Australia boasts around 1,000 estuaries, and many of these show telltale signs of degradation. 

Over the past two centuries, the health of our river systems and estuaries has gradually declined due to a range of influences, including salinity, sedimentation through soil degradation, loss of biodiversity, altered flow regimes, toxic algal blooms and declining nutrients and water quality. 

Given that Australia's rivers have naturally variable flow regimes, the challenge has been to ensure security of water supplies for agricultural and urban use. As a result, almost all of our major rivers are now dammed and their flows are regulated. 

It has become clear that we are extracting too much water. This is causing major impacts on river ecology. Toxic algal blooms are a symptom that indicate the poor condition of our waterways. We are also using groundwater at unsustainable rates. 

Land and water resource managers in Australia are under increasing pressure to meet stringent environmental guidelines, and the health of rivers and estuaries is a key factor in the sustainable management of Australia's natural resources. 

Australia has begun to tackle the issue of providing water for the environment and the trade-offs between water for production and water for environmental flows. Whilst Australia is introducing pioneering water reforms and is a world leader in the use of resource economics for natural resource management, much more knowledge is needed. 

Fundamental questions that must be addressed are: 

• What are the impacts from land use and land management on our rivers, estuaries, lakes, wetlands, reservoirs, groundwater? 
• How do we biophysically restore rivers and landscapes in an economic and socially acceptable way? 
• How do we achieve a balance between the competing demands of consumptive water use (for irrigated agriculture and other rural purposes, and for urban and industrial uses) and river health, allowing adequate environmental flows?

Related Links

• Water in Australia - Rivers and Coasts FAQ
• Catchment and Aquatic Systems research program
• Water - csiro.au
• Rivers - csiro.au
• Water for a Healthy Country Flagship